ThoughtVine 4ip Proposal

Elevator pitch

Topical online debates have the unfortunate tendency to degenerate into long-winded streams of heated comments. We propose bringing "argument mapping" techniques, originally developed for facilitating structured discussion, to the web. This has the potential to dramatically improve online debate, empowering more people to enjoy effective, informative, and fun discussions.

Needs

Target: people with something to say.

The blogging revolution has broken down many barriers. The public now expect space to contribute. Media has become a dialogue. But for hot issues, that dialogue is often shouted. Oversimplified and polarised positions are common.

Traditional forums have significant drawbacks:

• Only the first few comments ever get read by most visitors.
• Sprawling comment streams discourage people from engaging.
• Repetitive posts.
• Aggressive voices drown out moderate ones (c.f. Godwin's law of Nazi Analogies).
• Posts repeat the same point.

Topical debates are the domain of zealots and trolls. Whereas they could revolutionise public engagement.

Approach

We aim to make discussions enjoyable and inclusive, informative yet easy to enter. We'll achieve this with a collaborative editor for creating and evolving 'discussion maps'. These maps structure comments by how they fit into the general argument, using ideas from argumentation theory.

The team have used this technique to facilitate offline discussions. The resulting debates are:

• Clearer: showing the structure of the debate.
• More accessible: for example we've worked with people with learning difficulties; discussion maps encourage a wider range of people to contribute.
• Richer: There's space for conflicting opinions to coexist. The debate gains greater depth by including a range of responses.
• Deeper: the structure admits detailed evidence without burying the big picture in fussy details

For large online audiences, we believe that incorporating Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools can (a) help new users get started, and (b) allow the system to scale to handling thousands of commenters. NLP tools will streamline placement in the map by semi-automation: suggesting structure and automatically generating metadata. We are experts in this area.

The ask: We want ~£25k funding from 4ip to develop a production-ready service. Also, Channel 4 would be an awesome alpha client.

Sustainability

We will adopt a two-pronged business model.

A free version of the system for public use. This will promote the system and generate a user base. Long-term, it may serve as an acquisition target.

Revenue will come from licensing white-labelled versions of the software. Target markets are media sites, and government organisations and social research companies (using ThoughtVine to power public consultations).

Commercial development will be driven by Winterwell. Through marketing Sodash, Winterwell's social media power-tool, we are engaging with potential customers for ThoughtVine.

Winterwell's NLP engine is funded separately.

Competition

The main competition is comment threads. See BBC's Have Your Say, or the Guardian's Comment is Free for an example of the shortcomings.

Voting-based filters (e.g. Slashdot, StackOverflow) patch some issues. Some sites offer threading. This provides a basic structure, but doesn't prevent flame wars. Projects such as Debate Graph are clunky to use and/or lack the ability to scale to many users.

Compendium is a networked whiteboard for producing discussion maps. It is aimed at managing meetings and group tasks. It is used by professional debate facilitators such as Cognexus.

The Team

This project is a collaboration between...

KenYersel are a community organisation who combine IT with established participatory techniques to engage a wide variety of audiences using exciting and experimental methods. Over the past three years, we have organised community groups to facilitate the reflective discussion of topical issues. This has enabled us to develop innovative techniques and web based tools for enhancing citizen's relationship with news and politics. The primary aims have been to make the discussions enjoyable, educative and provide people with a sense of creating something as part of the debating process.

Winterwell is a software company that solves real-world problems with techniques from maths and artificial intelligence. Our team has worked for organisations such as the Home Office, BAE, and Tesco Bank. We don't live in a world made of simple systems interacting like clockwork. The noise and complexity of the real world demand creative solutions that adapt to a constantly changing environment. This is intelligence. Winterwell helps organisations of all shapes and sizes -- from the Home Office to interactive theatre companies -- frame the questions that matter and answer them with innovative, intelligent software.

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